Lance Wu, head of the Taiwan National Space Program Office.
Lance Wu, head of the Taiwan National Space Program Office. |
"Wu is suspected of inflating the price for the ARGO satellite project ... and of benefiting himself and some other people," Lin said, without going into details.
The project, launched in 2005 and named after a ship in Greek mythology, aims to put a satellite into the Earth's orbit by late next year.
Some 21 other people, including Wu's predecessor, space programme officials and a local broker of Canadian-based firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd, were questioned and released Wednesday, the prosecutor said.
The firm was given the contract to launch the satellite and provide engineering and mission support, but the agreement was scrapped when it failed to get an export license from the Canadian government.
A Taiwanese legislator, Liao Pen-yen, first raised queries about the project in parliament last year.
"There were a couple of suspicions in the case," Liao told AFP.
These included a discrepancy between the satellite launch cost quoted by the space office and the Canadian firm, he said.
Close to 600 million Taiwan dollars (18.18 million US) may have gone to individuals' pockets from contracts linked to the project, he said.
Taiwan has launched a number of satellites, including six weather satellites in April 2006.
Community
Bush Pushes New Climate Change Plan
Washington (AFP) May 31, 2007
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |